Obama Just Sent the Arms Trade Treaty to the Senate. Thankfully It Doesn’t Matter

Obama Just Sent the Arms Trade Treaty to the Senate. Thankfully It Doesn’t MatterTed R. Bromund, Ph.D.

USA – -(Ammoland.com)- Last week, the Obama administration took a step that conservatives have been anticipating for three years: it transmitted the Arms Trade Treaty to the Senate for ratification.

This move doesn’t matter.

The treaty is supposedly designed to control the international trade of weapons. It was adopted through the United Nations in 2013, and 91 nations have since ratified it.

The Arms Trade Treaty is a bad treaty, and it hasn’t gotten any better with age. In fact, the problems with it have only become more obvious. Only the European nations pretend to uphold it, while major arms exporters like Russia and China oppose it.

This treaty is failing because it has no connection to reality.

It is based on the fantasy that an international agreement can cause incompetent or dictatorial regimes to behave better, and the mistaken view that wars are caused by guns, not the regimes that use them.

The treaty’s left-wing advocates are stubbornly unwilling to condemn the autocracies for their arms trafficking, but are always eager to attack the U.S., Israel, and Britain for their democratically-adopted policies of selling arms to their allies.

In practice, the treaty will be used to make it harder for the U.S. to support its allies, to restrict the ability of U.S. firms to sell weapons abroad, and as a justification for limits on U.S. imports of firearms.

In theory, the treaty covers everything from pistols to battleships, but in reality, it is all about small arms—which explains why many of the treaty’s backers are old-time proponents of gun control.

Secretary of State John Kerry signed the Arms Trade Treaty in 2013, though former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was responsible for overseeing most of the negotiations that led up to it.

For the president to now send this treaty to the Senate after three years, during the lame-duck session, and after Clinton’s election defeat, is essentially dropping the treaty in the mailbox on the way out the door.

If the administration had the slightest hope of actually ratifying the Arms Trade Treaty, it would not have waited to the last minute to transmit it to the Senate. The administration has no such hope.

After Jan. 20 2017, a stone-cold minimum of 52 sitting senators—led by Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., and Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.—will be on record in opposition to the treaty, and the count against it could easily reach 57, or even higher.

The House, led by Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Penn., has also repeatedly voiced strong opposition to the treaty. The Republican Party platform explicitly condemns the treaty. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has already reiterated his strong opposition. The Arms Trade Treaty is simply not going to be ratified.

Only the European nations pretend to uphold it, while major arms exporters like Russia and China oppose it.

Only the European nations pretend to uphold it, while major arms exporters like Russia and China oppose it.

If there were a chance that the incoming Trump administration would back the treaty, the committee might want to further clarify its opposition by holding a hearing on the treaty and voting it down. But in these circumstances, that isn’t necessary.

Instead, the incoming administration should withdraw the Arms Trade Treaty from the Senate—just as President Jimmy Carter withdrew the SALT II treaty in January 1980—and then, in colloquial terms, “unsign” it by formally stating that it has no intention of ratifying the treaty.

The U.S. should keep attending Arms Trade Treaty meetings as an observer, just to keep tabs on what is happening, but it should be made crystal clear to everyone that the U.S. will never become a party to this treaty.

I actually welcome the Obama administration’s decision to transmit the treaty. This will give us an opportunity to read the transmittal package, which contains the administration’s rationale for negotiating and supporting the Arms Trade Treaty.

But the treaty is fundamentally misconceived, and reflects a misbegotten mix of liberal illusions about the power and effectiveness of treaties and anti-firearms activism.

This treaty is not going anywhere—except back to the White House, and then into the trash.

About Ted R. Bromund, Ph.D.: Ted R. Bromund studies and writes on British foreign and security policies and Anglo-American relations as senior research fellow in The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. He also explains why America must defend and advance its unique leadership role in the world. Visit: http://blog.heritage.org/author/tbromund/ to read more.

7 thoughts on “Obama Just Sent the Arms Trade Treaty to the Senate. Thankfully It Doesn’t Matter”

In accomplishing it’s stated goals, this “treaty” would be just about as effective as gun restriction legislation on criminals. In other words, totally useless, except for restricting the rights of honest folk who follow rules. Arms dealing nations always follow rules, right? Another hammer for big government to use on personal liberties.

I’m sure that you’re already aware that the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) would attack the Second Amendment in many ways. Most notably, it would REQUIRE America to set up a national gun registry. If New York City is any indicator, confiscation would soon follow. Nothing is going to happen in the Senate, prior to Christmas. But after the holidays, it will be important to pressure the incoming Trump administration to officially withdraw the United States from the ATT, once and for all. So stay tuned for future GOA alerts ( http://cqrcengage.com/gunowners/home ) on the ATT coming soon. We will have a lot of work to do. Until then, please have a wonderful time enjoying your family over the Christmas holidays.

JnAZ, You are %100 correct. The USA pays most of their bills and they do all they can to destroy our Constitution and way of life. Perhaps when the muslim leaves the White House, we the people can have a real government again. Only the democrats, Graham, and Songbird McCain would want something like this joke of an “agreement”.

These incompetent or dictatorial regimes are not going to even care about this nato treaty cause they are going to do just as they please. They have been doing that over and over again and nato has done nothing to them but put limits and bans on them which mean again nothing. They still get every thing they want anyway. I am tired of this admin trying to cram nato s*** down my throat. I live by the constitution and the constitution only any thing from nato don’t mean a damn thing to me.